[Haak]

I'm continuing from what Sol Falling and I were discussing in the episode 8 thread....

Originally Posted by Sol Falling

Spending so much time and effort to achieve something so completely minor is just the nice kind of bloke Mikado is? In that case then, the best way to communicate that to Anri and show the he isn't paying an unwelcome amount of interest to her is to spend his time going that far for other people, instead of her. Then she might actually think 'what a nice guy' and accept his kindness as she'll think 'that's just the way he is'.

Why would he do that? If it comes naturally to him then he probably won't think other people will see it in other ways.

The 'pretending' thing, while certain elements of those incidents might have been what Mikado really wanted, it is pretty clear in both instances that his main motivation is an interest in Anri. For the class representative thing, for example, Mikado only determines to actually do it after thinking 'I don't want anyone else to have the position'. Mikado's subsequent attempt to talk to her, furthermore, was clearly not because he was actually interested in the class representative work. Similarly for the bullies thing, it would have been totally natural for anybody to not want someone to get bullied right in front of their eyes, so we can assume some genuine altruism from Mikado. However, that was diluted by the only explicit motivation the show giving us being those fantasies about Anri gushing in thanks to him. It's his interest in Anri that comes across most clearly.

I don't think you can say it's clear Anri was his main motivation. He determined to actually do it before Anri put her hand up, if I recall. That black guys narration was talking about changing yourself just before that. The talk afterwards, I don't recall Mikado saying he wasn't interested in the position, nor usggest it. Just that he had never done anything like it before. And Anri gushing thanks to him? He only imagined her saying "He's so cool". I think gushing is a bit of an exageration. That could've just been an example of someone thinking how much he's changed. I think Anri is a motivation too, but he's also trying to change as well and as long as that's the case, he's not pretending. He's trying to become stronger.

I'm also including under this 'pretending' and 'not being genuine' category such petty tricks as ditching Kida during that bullying incident and, in this episode, hypocritically telling Kida to stop looking for the shoes while he continues to such an extent as to deliever them by nightfall. This sort of stuff is just cheap credit-grabbing behaviour so that he can look better in her eyes, not actions that have any inherent merit in them. By trying to minimize the 'competition' Mikado isn't showing Anri his real self either..

Ditching Kida was something but he saw how distressed Anri was and did something about it. That's not credit grabbing. He was actually trying to help her out. But since he was also motivated by his feelings for her, he forgot about Kida. That's all. Telling Kida not to look for the shoes? He could've just thought that Kida needn't bother if he didn't want to. That's not hypocritical. That's just being considerate. It's not like he forced Kida to stop. He just said forget about it. It's just that Mikado didn't feel like stopping. In end he gave up to, but noticed Anri's shoes outside, after he gave up.